The Welding Institute Awards 2018 - Applied Technology Award

23 April 2018

The Larke Lillicrap Award, also known as the Applied Technology Award, is named in memory of William Larke and Charles Lillicrap. It is bestowed each year upon an individual or team who have had the greatest influence or impact on the practical application of novel welding, joining knowledge or technology.

The award was won by Jonathan Bowers and Alessandro Sardo of Italian oil and gas contractor, Saipem. Jonathan and Alessandro were able to successfully demonstrate how their work had a positive impact on welding and joining in real-world engineering.

The award winners have been part of a team at Saipem who have worked continuously to develop welding techniques and procedures that have allowed the company to install over 6000km of large diameter trunklines around the world. These pipelines for a significant part of the world energy transportation network. Over this time, Saipem have set the standards for consistent levels of high productivity, quality and reliability.

Jonathan Bowers and Alessandro qualify for this award due to their development of the internal plasma arc welding system for the welding of root passes in pipelines with corrosion resistant alloy lining or cladding. The represents a step change in the quality of the critical internal pass. The work has been published in a number of papers.

They have jointly developed the internal plasma welding system from a concept to a working tool. This tool greatly improves the quality of the internal weld bead reducing defects and false calls, particularly on pipelines which are internally clad or lined with CPR. This equipment has been used on seven projects to date including in 2016 the twin 95km long (66km offshore) long Kashagan pipelines which are 28” diameter with an internal 3mm layer of alloy 625 cladding. Hence it has been a development with major impact in the practical world of pipeline welding

In order to be recognised for this award, the nominees must present their engineering project via a published academic or research paper. The nomination is then assessed on its practical application value and impact on welding and joining with another essential element being that the technical content has been published to the benefit of the welding and joining community.